Time flies; I feel it more than ever as I have gotten older. When I was a kid, days, weeks and months seemed to last forever. The school year was endless; for that matter the school day was endless. The outside world was always calling, Mr. Hoff would have to jolt me back from my stage of day dreaming to the matters at hand. Even Summer vacation was too long, I would exhaust the list of things I wanted to do within the first few weeks and then I was bugging my parents for things to do. I had to be careful in asking my mom and dad about this because they would assign me something, they wanted to have done rather than something I wanted to do.

That time keeping left me years ago and the world sped up. Now I live in the land of endless lists. There is no way that I have enough time to knock out what I have set before me, there just isn’t enough time. This is not unique to me, most ever adult I know lives in a world that is flying by. Our commitments, wants, and desires far outstrip the time we have been allotted. What is there to do? Do we shrug it off, it will never be any better so solder on.

Every once in awhile I do remember that Jesus did say that he came to give us abundant living. When we consider abundant living, we have to confess that it lies outside the lists that we create for ourselves. There isn’t a list that ends with abundant living, rather abundant living is an attitude we bring to the tasks we do. It’s not easy but we have the ability to shape the world around us through our spiritual life. When we allow our faith to aid us in driving our life, we hold the potential slowing our lives down enough to see what God is doing in and with us. Remember God doesn’t count time like us, we have the ability to step into God’s time whenever we choose.

Here are a few pastoral suggestions on how one can enter God’s time:

• First off don’t feel guilty that you’re getting things done, remember this is not on the list. These are exercises to free yourself from time.
• Take a short walk and enjoy the sights and sounds around you.
• Sit in a quiet place and consider how you made this space holy.
• Call a friend or better yet, have a meal with someone who brings joy to your life and hold that holy space.

We hold within ourselves God’s eternal presence, too often however, our own sense of the holy gets pushed into the back ground of living. I hope we all can find it within ourselves to take a moment and step out of our time and into God’s to experience a sense of the holy.